


Scream it out

by Anonymous



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Egg Laying, Galra Keith (Voltron), Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other, Oviposition, Post-Canon, Serious Injuries, Tentacle Rape, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 20:05:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "Shiro! What's wrong?""The thing, it." Shiro swallows. He doesn't want to say it. He doesn't want to put any of it into words yet and Keith seems to be on the same page with him on that, but they can't get to anywhere like this. Shiro stares at the ground and forces the words out. He tastes blood and vomit. Humiliation too. "It put something in me. Eggs. It hurts to move."A tentacle monster rapes Shiro and lays eggs into him. Now he has to push them out. At least Keith is there to support him even though the monsters got him too...





	Scream it out

**Author's Note:**

> For a [kinkmeme prompt](https://voltronkink-meme.dreamwidth.org/1083.html?thread=15675#cmt15675): _Shiro is raped by a creature that lays eggs in him. One of his friends finds him and takes care of and supports him as he pushes the eggs out of himself. The eggs are big enough that it's a struggle to push them out. I'd prefer Shiro to not get any pleasure from the egg laying. I'd also love him being exhausted part way through and his supporting friend encouraging him and trying to help him._
> 
> Note: Shiro isn't the only one who gets raped by the aliens in this fic, but it happens off-screen to the others. Keith's rape is referenced directly, Allura and Pidge's are strongly implied, Hunk and Lance are mentioned as maybes.

The tentacle inside him pulses and Shiro feels it expanding. He can see it between his legs too, the fat round things moving under it's skin, up and into him, and it hurts when something tears. He knows that the hot trickle down his legs isn't just alien slime anymore.

He'd yell if his mouth wasn't full of quivering appendages too. They taste like mud and the blood from his split lip.

Somewhere in the distance, someone does scream and Shiro isn't sure of who it is. Pidge, maybe, with a voice that high. He'd been running into her direction when the creature had struck and trapped him against the damp ground, tearing his armor apart like it was made of paper.

It's been ten minutes at most and Shiro knows he's a mess. He's spread on the ground with his arm and legs secured and very little of his clothes remain. He's covered in the rags and dirt and slime and blood. Tears too because it's been ten minutes of pain and tentacles pushing deep into his throat and ass, and he wants to throw up until that'll make him hurt too.

He knows what the creature is doing. The eggs slide into him and it's worse than any stomach ache he's ever had. There's enough of them to make his stomach bulge out, or maybe they're just that big. It's hard to tell and it doesn't even matter. Shiro chokes into the tentacles and his muffled scream, and his throat hurts too.

The rush in his ears is blood and panic and gut wrenching fear. He doesn't hear anything else anymore so when the things in his mouth and ass suddenly pull out, it's a surprise that leaves him slack-jawed and struggling for breath. This time, the shriek he hears is utterly inhuman. A thick tentacle whips across the ground and Shiro rolls away because he knows how strong they are. If it got in a lucky hit, it'd crush his head like an egg.

The ground shakes when the creature trashes and struggles, and Shiro gets onto his knees just in time to see Keith strike his sword into the thickest part of it. The creature screams and then it goes slack, tentacles flopping onto the muddy ground. Some part of Shiro is so shocked that he laughs when Keith stabs it again and again. The blood he sprays is almost black and some of it lands on Shiro too.

When the creature is definitely dead, hacked to pieces and its guts decorating the small clearing in the middle of the alien jungle, Keith straightens his back and looks at Shiro. He's naked and bloody and glorious like an avenging angel, and it takes a moment until Shiro's brain catches onto the rest of it. Keith's skin has a new shade on it and his eyes are golden. The blood on him isn't just black and there's some of it on his legs too, matching the trickles running down Shiro's own thighs.

Shiro throws up until there's nothing, not even bile left.

Keith's hand is heavy and warm on Shiro's shoulders when he finally draws in a shaky breath that doesn't end in heaving. He doesn't really hear what Keith is saying, but the familiar voice is a comfort of its own. The steady stream of soft words tells him he's safe because Keith wouldn't talk like that if he wasn't.

"The-" Shiro croaks out, tasting copper on his tongue. He spits out blood and tries again. "The others, are they-?"

"I don't know," Keith says behind him. His voice is hoarse too. "Allura was with me when those things- We decided to split up when we got free. I don't know who she found after."

Shiro wants to ask but since he doesn't want to hear the answer, he doesn't. One of the creatures got him and clearly another one got Keith. Allura too since she was with Keith. Probably Pidge from the sounds of it too. He doesn't want to know for sure yet. He doesn't want to think about anything that happened yet, not until they're all safe in the Lions.

"Then we have to go," he says. Keith's arm slides down to support him when he tries to get up. " _Ah!_ "

The sharp sound is out of his mouth before he knows it. Everything hurts and he folds into himself, clutching his stomach with the hand he has left. He can feel the things inside him even through the layers of muscles.

"Shiro!" The distress in Keith's voice goes up a notch and the arm around Shiro tightens, but Keith doesn't ask if Shiro's okay. Nothing about this is okay, the least of it the two of them. "Wait, where's your arm?"

"I don't know." Somewhere in the nearby bushes probably. What's left of it anyway. The creature had crushed the arm like a bug and thrown it aside. "Doesn't matter, it's gone. We have to-"

They have to find the others but when Shiro tries to get up, he just can't. The pain is searing through him like a brand and the things are heavy, pushing against his intestines. He doubles down with a shout again, curling into himself, and Keith cries out.

"Shiro! What's wrong?"

If he doesn't know, then the creature who got him didn't do this to him. Shiro's grateful for that at least.

"The thing, it." He swallows. He doesn't want to say it. He doesn't want to put any of it into words yet and Keith seems to be on the same page with him on that, but they can't get to anywhere like this. Shiro stares at the ground and forces the words out. He tastes blood and vomit. Humiliation too. "It put something in me. Eggs. It hurts to move."

Keith stills. Shiro can see his purple fingers from the corner of his eye and he definitely feels it when they tighten their grip. Keith doesn't have sharp claws, but his nails still seem to be thicker and harder than a human's. The hand is bigger than it used to be too. It's all new to Shiro and it's easier to wonder why Keith kept it a secret than it is to think about what he just admitted out loud.

"Okay," Keith says eventually. His voice is strained and Shiro is absurdly proud of his calmness. He's grown so much. "Okay. Then we gotta get them out."

"Right." Shiro squeezes his eyes shut for a moment and then he blinks, taking a deep breath. That's exactly what he should do. He can't move like this and they have to save their team. Keith should be saving them right now, in fact. "You should go to them. Help them. I can- I'll do it myself."

"No." A gentle hand touches his jaw and turns his head a little. Just enough that Shiro can finally see Keith's face. It's strange and familiar and beautiful all at once. "I'm not leaving you."

Stubborn as a mule stuck in cement too. Shiro knows that voice. Arguing against it would be a waste of time so he simply nods. Deep down under the heavy sense of duty and the gnawing worry for the others he's infinitely grateful.

"I never thought I'd lay eggs." He avoids Keith's eyes and attempts to smile. "Or that you'd be the midwife."

Keith's shoulders shake with his laughter. It's as hysterical as Shiro feels and he ends up laughing too until it jostles his stomach just the wrong way and the eggs shift. He stiffens and bites back a shout, but of course Keith hears the pained sound anyway.

"Okay," he says again. He tugs at Shiro's shoulders until Shiro gets the hint and shuffles to the left. It's going to be awful but at least he's not kneeling on a puddle of his own vomit anymore. "Tell me what you want. Anything you need, you got it."

They're kneeling face to face now and Shiro's acutely aware of the fact that they're both naked. This isn't how he imagined it would happen. This is so far from any of the secret fantasies he's had of Keith and nakedness and Keith saying that exact thing to him that it's in another universe entirely. Shiro wants to kill the creature again for ruining this, but it's too late for that now.

He wraps his arm around Keith's shoulders for support and leans in closer, and then he buries his face into Keith's neck. Keith smells like blood and dirt. It's not what Shiro imagined either.

His face is burning when he says, "Just stay there."

"Yeah." When Keith wraps his arm around Shiro's bare back and cradles the back of his head in his hand, he's warmer than Shiro expected. Maybe Galran bodies run hotter than humans do. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Can you- Don't look. Please." Shiro's voice finally breaks at that.

Getting the eggs out is going to be gross and ugly, and even if Keith has to hear it, at least he doesn't have to see it. Shiro doesn't want him to see it.

"I won't." Keith turns his head too, hiding his face into Shiro's tense shoulder. "I promise."

Shiro knows it's another promise Keith will keep for his sake.

Taking a deep breath, Shiro moves his knees further apart and that sends a new spark of pain along his spine. The eggs are heavy and solid inside him, pressing against places that were never meant to feel that amount of pressure. He's not even sure of how many of them the creature laid into him. He hadn't seen the tentacle clearly enough to count them through his tears.

He had, however, seen how much the tentacle had bulged so he knows that the eggs are big. They feel like it too when he starts to push.

"Oh god," he chokes out into Keith's skin, sweat breaking over his skin in an instant. The eggs shift and line up differently. It feels like his body is stuffed full all the way up to his throat and he's suffocating. He gasps for air and glaws at Keith and whimpers. "Oh god, oh _fuck_."

The arm around his back tightens and Keith makes a sound like he's hurting too.

The eggs slide down and it hurts because while the tentacle had been slimy, it hadn't been gentle. It had been too much and too fast, and the blood on Shiro's thighs isn't just from his aching hole. He hopes that the injuries in him aren't so bad that a healing pod can't fix them, and then the first egg presses against his rim.

It burns like hell and this time, Shiro can't bite back the scream. He stifles it against Keith's neck and pushes through it, pushes until he feels something give in and the egg falls out of him. It hits the ground with a soft thud and Shiro's stomach and throat convulse. There's nothing to throw up anymore so he pushes through that feeling too, dry heaving until the spasms stop.

His face is wet with tears and a part of him knows that he's hurting Keith. The skin under his fingertips and nails is slippery with blood that isn't his own. He still can't let go and since Keith didn't even twitch, not once while Shiro was pushing the egg out, Shiro decides to take him at his word. Keith did say, _anything you need_ , and Shiro needs this. He needs Keith as the immovable object to lean on, a support that doesn't crumble under his agony.

"I'm sorry," he still says. Keith doesn't need to do this, thank god, but one of the creatures still got him. He's hurt too and Shiro's only adding to it. "Keith, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." The hand cradling Shiro's head slides down to his neck and back up again. Shiro closes his eyes. "I don't care about that."

"You should." That's an argument they're going to have later. Shiro takes a deep breath, trying to calm down his racing heart and get his muscles to relax. It's not working. He swallows and says, "Can you just, talk?"

"Sure." Keith's breath is warm against Shiro's shivering skin. "Anything in particular you wanna hear about?"

"Tell me about your wolf."

He's heard a lot about the wolf from both Keith and Krolia, but that's not important. The words aren't important, it's the cadence and familiarity of Keith's voice. Shiro leans into him and breathes, and listens to the soft murmur that makes him feel better simply because it means that Keith is near.

He knows he's leaning heavily on Keith but Keith doesn't complain. He doesn't stop talking even when Shiro inhales deeply and hangs onto him, muscles contracting and fingers digging in. He pushes and the eggs slide down again and at least there's the slime, Shiro thinks and feels sick at the thought. At least there's still the disgusting alien slime inside of him too, lubricating the eggs and their way out. He might actually tear apart without it.

The second egg feels huge inside of him, bigger than the first one. The insistent pressure against his rim is greater and it hurts, and he knows it's going to hurt even worse before it's out. There's a short moment, just a second or two, when Shiro wonders if he should stop and wait. Take a breather until he can gather his strength and go through it. The moment passes because what's the point? It's not going to get any better so he might as well get it over now.

Shiro focuses on Keith's voice, lets it wash over him as he grits his teeth together and pushes. It doesn't take the searing pain away when he forces the egg through his throbbing hole and it doesn't stop the visceral disgust he feels down to his bones. It just keeps him from falling apart completely even when the third egg follows the second one too quickly and slips out of him too. Shiro hears the dull, wet sound it makes when it falls on top of the others and this time there is something to throw up.

He thrusts Keith aside and falls onto his hands and knees, spraying a mouthful of gastric acid onto the ground. It burns in his scratched up throat and tastes vile.

"Shiro?"

He gasps for breath and tries to focus on anything that isn't something he feels. Keith's raspy voice. The bright green jungle around them. The careful hand rubbing circles on his back. The stinking carcass of the creature that did this to him.

Not that, he doesn't want to think about that.

"Keith, I." Shiro doesn't know what he wants to say, but he knows what he needs to say. "Still one left."

He can feel it deep inside him, and he doesn't know how he's going to find the will or strength to push it out. It takes so much effort to not collapse on the forest floor and let the ache take him over. Maybe Keith could carve him open with his bayard and dig the egg out instead. It'd be easier.

It wouldn't be easier for Keith though and that thought more than anything else gets Shiro moving again. His mouth tastes foul, he's never in his life been this dirty and his legs tremble when he tries to stand up. A sword through his stomach would probably hurt less than his asshole and intestines do right now. There's fresh blood trickling down his legs, and he doesn't want to look at Keith's body. 

He does so anyway. Just for a moment. Just long enough to see marks like rope burns around Keith's ankles and the lines of dried blood that go up his legs, past his knees.

Shiro looks away, forcing his nausea down.

"Shiro? Do you want to stand up?"

Keith's still touching him, hand a warm point of connection on Shiro's back. He's hovering awkwardly at Shiro's side and it's so humiliating that Keith sees him broken down like this. Shiro shoves that feeling down too. There's no time for that.

Keith repeats his name and Shiro shakes his head to clear it. Then he nods. "Yeah."

It might be easier to push the egg out if he's on his feet and gravity is helping him.

Keith's arms circle his torso and he's not overly careful when he hauls him up. Shiro swears and staggers, and then he collapses against Keith again, hanging onto his broad shoulders with his one arm. Everything hurts in brand new and excruciating ways. The egg moves in him and for a second it feels like it's lodged into his throat.

Keith's skin really is purple, Shiro notices dizzily, panting through the torturous pain. Lavender. Pretty. And, "You got taller."

He doesn't want to lift his forehead from Keith's neck, but he's almost certain that if he did, he could look straight into Keith's eyes. He's so used to looking down that he doesn't know what to do with that knowledge.

Keith makes a noncommittal noise, wrapping his arms around Shiro more securely. "Maybe."

"And purple. Since when?" A big part of Shiro hopes that Keith doesn't answer because this isn't how he wants to learn this. The rest of him is ready to cling onto anything as long as it takes his mind off of all the ways he feels like an open wound.

"Oriande," Keith replies, and the images flashing through Shiro's mind now are only marginally better than the ones before.

They'd almost lost Keith and Allura there. As far as Shiro knows, they've never told anyone what, exactly, Haggar and the druids did to them. The haunted looks on their faces afterwards hadn't invited questions. Maybe they should've asked them anyway.

Shiro says, "I'm sorry," and means it.

"Don't be." Gentle fingers smooth down Shiro's sweaty hair and Keith sighs. "It wasn't anyone's fault. Just one of those shitty things that happen because the universe loves us so quiznaking much."

Shiro snorts, jerking a little, and suddenly the egg presses against something else, like his spleen or kidneys or whatever it is that sends jolts of pain down to his toes. He groans, curling his fingers around Keith's forearm again. The grip is weak because he doesn't have any energy to spare. It all goes into standing up and whatever stays in reserve, he's going to need it to get rid of the egg.

"What can I do?" Keith asks and he's trembling too. "Shiro? Can I do anything?"

He could, but it's another thing Shiro wanted to happen differently. In a dimly lit bedroom on the Atlas, under a starry night sky in the quiet desert or maybe in a luxurious hotel room with an amazing view. He wanted to have Keith's touch in a place like that and with all the time in the world to learn each other.

Right here, right now, everything is ugly and they're on a schedule. The others are still lost in the jungle and there's no guarantee that Allura has found them. Shiro shakes off his useless sentimentality with the same grim determination he used in the gladiator arena. He closes his eyes and moves to grab one of Keith's arms to bring his hand between them. Keith is damp and sticky with mud and fluids, and he doesn't resist the manhandling.

"Here," Shiro says, trying not to think about what he's asking Keith to do. "Press here. I don't have a hand to spare."

He throws his arm around Keith again and spreads his legs, toes digging into the mud and probably puke too. He tells himself that it doesn't matter.

The palm on his stomach is warm. Shiro squeezes his eyes shut and doesn't look down, and Keith promised that he wouldn't either. The horrified sound he makes when he presses his hand firmly down will haunt Shiro's nightmares enough as it is.

"Oh god, I can- _Shiro_ , I can feel it." Shiro isn't the only one panting now. He tries to breathe through the dull pain and Keith's misery. The shoulder under his forehead twitches like Keith's getting electrocuted, one shock and a tremor after another.

"You have to," Shiro says. He holds on tighter and shuffles closer until they're chest to chest and he's speaking into Keith's pointed ear and matted hair. "You have to- I can't do this alone."

Keith makes a wretched sound and turns his head to nuzzle Shiro's filthy neck. "I'm here. Tell me when."

Shiro stares right ahead over Keith's shoulder. The sunlight filtering through the lush green leaves makes this place almost peaceful. If it weren't for the carcass behind them, the blood and gore all over them and the clearing, and the nightmarish situation they've been trapped into almost from the moment they landed, it might even be nice.

It isn't.

The egg is still in him and with Keith's palm over it, Shiro is acutely aware of the shape and weight of it. He's on the verge of retching again, stomach churning against the intrusive feeling and mind against the revolting knowledge that it's there. Everything hurts and he's not sure that he can actually stay on his feet for this, but that doesn't matter because Keith will catch him if he falls.

The body against his is naked and warm, strong muscles over solid bones, and Shiro wanted to enjoy this too. He wanted this to be kind and sweet and loving, but it isn't.

"Okay," he says and closes his eyes. "Do it."

Keith's hold around his waist tightens and then he presses down on the egg. Shiro doesn't know what it feels like to Keith, if the egg under his fingers is as disgusting and alien as it is to Shiro. The egg shifts under his skin and Shiro pushes because he wants it out, and then he gags on nothing because it's not just pain. He can feel the egg moving down and rotating around itself, and maybe it's just half a turn but it's so gross that his mind can't even wrap itself around it.

He doesn't faint but it's a close thing. He comes back from the soul-searing disgust and spotty vision to Keith's voice, hearing his own name falling like a prayer from Keith's lips. Keith's hand is still on him, is still pressing down because Shiro asked him to do it.

The egg slides down and there's barely enough alien slime left in him to smooth the way. It burns worse than the second egg did and then it's right there, a heavy pressure against his rim.

Shiro gasps for air and sags against Keith's shoulder, face wet with tears. "Keith, I can't-"

"You can," Keith says insistently. "You can, Shiro, I love you, you can do this."

Shiro shakes his head until the hand clutching his back skims up and Keith's fingers are in his hair. The grip isn't gentle and when Keith yanks his head back, it stings. Shiro's neck protests the strain and he yelps, blinking through the tears.

Keith's eyes are still golden and he's crying too, and then he says, "Do it," like it's an order, and Shiro does.

He wrenches his hair free from Keith's grip and crashes against his chest. It's an agony to force the egg through the spasming ring of muscle even though it's been abused so horribly that it should be gaping already. Shiro digs his fingers into Keith's arm and his nails breach the skin to draw out even more blood. He can't hold back the scream, not completely, not when it feels like he's being torn into two.

The egg falls out with a gush of slime that spatters on Shiro's shaking legs.

His knees give in and he collapses onto Keith, hanging off his shoulders like a boneless doll. He'd like nothing better than to stay there until he's numb inside out, but that's not an option.

Keith walks back a few staggering steps, dragging Shiro's limb, aching body with him. It's a good thing he's so big now, Shiro thinks nonsensically. All that Galra strength sure is useful right now.

"Shiro? Shiro? Listen to me," Keith says into his ear. Shiro tries to focus on his voice. "Was that all of them?"

God, it had to be. Feeling anything past the pain is nigh impossible, but Shiro tries. His asshole is a torn mess he doesn't want to think about a second longer than he has to. The healing pods Coran and Sam installed into the Lions are amazing. Shiro hopes they're amazing enough to fix that too. His intestines are sore after getting pushed around and that's something even the Galra druids hadn't done to him, too focused on hacking his arm off. There's no shower in the world that can cleanse his body and mind wholly.

But he's pretty sure there are no alien eggs in him anymore. That has to count for something.

"Yeah," he says finally, tasting blood again. His throat is also sore. "That was it."

Nothing short of a threat on Keith's life is going to make him turn around and look at the eggs. The mere thought is so revolting that Shiro wants to throw up again. He forces the rising bile back down and tries to make sense of his other injuries. His legs are striked with blood and other fluids, and there's mud and bruises all over his body. Wherever his right arm is, he's not going to go and look for it. It's just an arm, he can get another one. Again.

His left arm is still around Keith and the hand has a deathgrip on his biceps. The fingers are slippery with Keith's blood and that snaps Shiro back into the moment instantly. One way or another, he always ends up hurting Keith.

He gets as far as "Keith, I'm-" when Keith interrupts him sharply.

"Forget it. It's not- On the scale of what that thing did and you scratching me a bit, you don't even register. No offense," he adds and Shiro shouldn't laugh at that but he does.

He tries to get his feet under himself and he's surprised that it works. He's wobbly, but he can stand on his own. If he doesn't move, he only feels like a raw steak instead of a heap of minced meat.

The nerves between his brains and fingers seem to connect again, but letting go of Keith is still difficult. Shiro hisses as his joints protest and fingers seize. Then Keith's hand covers his and straightens out the stiff digits slowly and carefully like they're made of glass. He doesn't say anything when blood trickles down from the grooves Shiro's fingers leave behind. Shiro can't see it but he feels it, a hot and sticky dribble under his fingertips.

He swallows the apology down and shoves it deep into the back of his mind where it bothers only him. Keith doesn't want it. Shiro lets out a shaky sigh against Keith's neck and closes his eyes.

They stay like that for a moment, just breathing and hurting and leaning against each other.

"Can you walk?" Keith asks finally. His voice is soft. His fingers comb through Shiro's hair gently. It's so close to what Shiro's wanted for so long, and now it's been twisted into something dirty and foul. "We need to get moving."

He's right. The others are still out there and god, Shiro hopes he was the only one the creature used like that, the only one who got stuffed full of eggs like a living incubator. Imagining anyone else going through the same thing he just did is awful beyond words. He can barely put into words what happened when the creature forced its tentacles into him.

Into Keith too. Allura. Pidge, probably. Lance and Hunk if the creatures got them too. Oh god.

Shiro knows he can't think all of them at once or he's going to fall into pieces no one can put back together. He focuses on what's in front him and straightens his back slowly and painfully, pulling away from Keith. It's impossible to stop touching him though, so Shiro leaves his hand on his shoulder. The uninjured one, the one he didn't accidentally maul.

His eyes try to skip over everything because he doesn't want to see and know for sure, but this time he doesn't let them. Keith is alive. He's hurt. He looks like a Galra and Shiro's mind tries to latch onto that. He doesn't let that happen either because it's not important. Keith is still himself all the way through, in all the ways that will ever matter. The nakedness isn't important either, not in this situation. This isn't the moment Shiro wants to return to when he thinks of Keith and being naked with him.

"Yeah, I can walk," Shiro lies between his teeth. He'll give himself two steps before Keith has to either leave him or carry him, and Shiro wouldn't put any money on the former. He lies only because he wants Keith to answer his own question. "How badly are _you_ hurt?"

Shiro flicks flakes of drying blood and mud from Keith's shoulder. The skin underneath all the grime is smooth and purple and lovely.

"I'll live." Keith shrugs.

It's not much of an answer. "Keith."

"Not so badly that I can't run or fight, okay. The rest of it?" He shrugs again. "I'll live with it."

And really, what else is there to say. Shiro knows he's in no shape to offer comfort, not when he needs it himself and tries not to. He doesn't want to think or talk about it, not yet and maybe not ever, so he can't ask that from Keith either.

"Okay," he says and nods. That hurts too, pain like lightning bolts striking from his neck down to his spine and lower. "Keith?"

"Yeah?"

"I lied. I don't think I can walk."

Keith shakes his head and looks so unsurprised by the confession that Shiro smiles weakly. Then Keith grabs his hand and brings it down, holding it against his chest for a moment. Shiro imagines he can feel Keith's heartbeat thundering under the muscle and bone. He can definitely feel his own heart jumping up to his throat when Keith lifts his hand and kisses the knuckles, never mind the layer of filth on them.

"I figured. I'll carry you." Keith's touch slides down Shiro's flank, skimming over the bruises and friction burns the creature left.

It hurts. They're not okay. Shiro knows that. But they're going to find the others, and they're all going to live and heal. Shiro refuses to believe that they won't.


End file.
